Westward

The parking is pretty much the same where we spent Christmas day at our son's in Thames Ditton. Last year there was a family a few doors along who had 5 cars, 2 of them electric, and the consequent cables draped across the pavement. They've moved out now but parking is still a matter of luck as very few of the homes have off street parking and those are mostly single vehicle spaces. There are about 100 homes in that street and as far as I could tell not a single EV. London and the south east has 10s of thousands of such streets and it's the same story in every city and town across the country. Further down the lane where we live there are 2 terraces of 6 cottages built for the mill workers in the 19th century. They are built at right angles to the lane and only 2 of the 12 can park on their own property. Parking all their vehicles in a narrow lane is a daily problem that affects/annoys properties well away from the terraces. Installing charge points in street lamps won't work there either as there are only 2 and they're on the wrong side of the road. Perhaps the scientific "experts" who accidently created the greatest hoax in history might consider applying some real science to climate change and stop guessing that it's carbon dioxide emissions.

I filled up with petrol last Wednesday. Did a few shopping trips then on Christmas Day drove to London for a family Xmas and didn't spare the horses. Drove home Boxing Day and made 2 shopping trips since then. Probably covered 250+ miles all told and the tank's still half full. All went pretty smoothly for us but not so much for these folks: https://metro.co.uk/2022/12/28/six-hour-queues-show-what-its-really-like-owning-a-tesla-at-christmas-18004669/

At your budget virtually any properly cared for gun will outlast you and probably your children. There are lefty guns available from Beretta, Blaser, CG, Browning etc. The dear old MK38s are well thought of by their aficionados but they're getting rarer on the clay courses and are certainly not the only fish in the sea.

Rail "Workers". Hmmm. Back in the summer I was pottering on my allotment when some men dressed head to toe in HiViz orange ambled over and asked who they should see as they were here to tidy up the bushes etc growing through the fence from the embankment about 300 yds up the path and into the our allotment area. I directed them up to where a committee member was working. The 2 men came back about half an hour later and collected the other 4 men. After a smoke and a good old yack they all moseyed gently up to the fence. Parked in the road outside were 2 Network rail Sprinters and a flat bed truck. Those 6 men took 4 hours to trim a length of light bushes about 3 times as long as my hedge. The brash they chucked over onto the embankment. I can cut my 2 metre hedge on my own and bag up the clippings in about 40 minutes! Since 1 man in a small van could have done the entire job in an hour, it would have been more sensible, cheaper and less polluting if 5 of them had stayed back at base reading the Daily Mirror, so don't ask me to support them. Why disrupt the lives of ordinary people, we're all being hit by inflation.

Precisely. Your EV might be better than a Chelsea tractor for local journeys, but what if you wanted a weekend away at Wasdale Head in the Lakes. Would you take the EV and all the stress and time spent looking for charging points or would it be the wife's 4x4?

Lets also remember that NHS staff are still getting discounts at many shops and places such as gyms. Something now irreversible that started during the pandemic, when in reality only a small minority of staff and nurses were working in the Covid wards.

What people overlook amid all the emotive babbling, is that unlike paramedics and ambulance drivers, nursing is a career, at least for those that want more than just a job. There are various nursing grades up to senior Nurse Practitioner position and they can earn as much as £87K. The NHS is hopelessly out of balance; managers can't manage unless those who really control our hospitals (i.e. The hugely well paid, mostly part time consultants) cooperate. The disparity between the top earners, often only putting in 2 days a week for the NHS and the troops is outrageous, especially since many of the the troops put in shifts and other unsociable hours or have to go out in all weathers and conditions to to provide 1st line treatment to the very sick or often enough those with terrible injuries. Meanwhile the consultants spend half their time seeing private patients and earning more per hour than some of the troops earn in a week. The NHS must ultimately implode if it carries on providing free care for anyone who comes calling. And I don't just mean free treatment for health tourists, although that's outrageous enough, but the millions who offload responsibility for their own health to the NHS. The burden of dealing with largely avoidable conditions sucks in an ever increasing proportion of the NHS budgets and other resources. It's long overdue for the government to get a proper grip on the health service and stop fannying around with nonsense like Nett Zero.

There should be a TPMS reset button somewhere. Check in the manual.

Clearly a healthier lifestyle incorporating a proper exercise regime is important, but doctors typically prescribe Metformin to reduce blood glucose. It works but can have unpleasant side effects because interferes with the gut biome. However, if you're into healthy options consider a natural alternative called Berberine. This has been used in China for years and is often prescribed there instead of Metformin. Recent research shows it to be at least as effective as Metformin but without the side effects. Not only that, but it benefits gut bio and thus the immune system as well as reducing cholesterol. People taking it also report reduced desire for sweet stuff and weight loss. Look it up if you want confirmation. IMO not all supplements are created equal and I won't buy anything from Holland & Barret as they're Russian owned. I take Berberine for a different reason altogether, but I recommend "British Supplements" as a good supplier of naturally sourced Berberine.

The link takes you a domain registered in Montenegro if that helps.

Some years ago there was a news item about a lady from somewhere in Africa who was expecting quads and was close to giving birth. She flew to America but was refused access to hospital so she flew to London. She was immediately hospitalised and later was late delivered of 4 premature babies all of whom needed many weeks of critical care. Where they are now I have no idea but the cost to the NHS (i.e. us) was estimated at £400,000. The principal of free treatment to everyone who walks in the door is a recipe for large scale abuse, both by health tourists and ordinary citizens. I agree totally that there should be a nominal charge at least for initial treatment or assessment. It would at least stop the time wasters turning up at A&E or the surgery because they have a headache or a sore toe.

I don't know what people expect. It's no good trying to pin it on the government, the tories have poured more money in than the other lot did, but it doesn't make much difference because it won't be solved by simply throwing money at it. To start we had a nett migration of 330,000 in 2021. A figure that's been steadily increasing for the last 20 years or so resulting in at least 5 million more people living here and that's just the ones they know about. I know or know of several people who've migrated here from overseas. In every case they arrived with a raft of medical issues, some very serious, for the NHS to deal with, that they either couldn't afford or couldn't get at all in their country of birth. I don't doubt that the NHS is a huge magnet for migration to Britain. Two migrants that I still have knowledge of have also since had children delivered by the NHS. Factor in the vastly increased range and complexity of treatments available, the sad reality that many common conditions are lifestyle related and therefore avoidable, and the hopelessness of the GP surgery system, meaning A&E often get buried in trivial cases, and the problems become insurmountable without a fundamental realignment of immigration policy and the 1st level care system. Aside from the GP surgeries, the poor old NHS is probably trying to handle at least double the demand level of 20 years ago with only about 15 or 20% extra hospitals and resources.

All of us of your generation experienced snow and ice several times every winter. Often a foot or more deep. When I was a kid, the schools were never closed because of what was seen as normal winter weather, in ice or snow we would get to school early and start building huge slides which would often last for days. In this area the schools shut for the least little thing. I suppose they're terrified that young Bailey might slip and bruise his poor ickle elbow. These days the roads are made much more dangerous because the numpties in the highways department spread salt on perfectly dry roads every time the temp goes near zero. Then, when we get snow settling on salt, guess what, it's far more slippery and treacherous that just plain old snow. Hence chaos. Our generation just got on with life regardless of the weather. Snow was an inconvenience sometimes but it was a fact of winter life and we pulled on boots and warm clothes and allowed a bit more time for journeys. Back in the famous 62/63 winter I had an 11 mile journey to work which I completed every single day, there and back, on my motorbike. I'll never forget the excruciating pain as the frozen hands came back to life once I got indoors. To me it was a matter of honour to turn up every day for work whatever the weather. Who would do that now? Sadly it's the snowflakes, lightweights and risk averse "authorities" who dominate life these days.

Okay I get the logic, but from what I see visiting SW London regularly where there are loads of late model cars everywhere, EVs are few and far between. Like I said above, it's probably the charging issues that limit take up. Strangely, there's much higher percentage of EVs in the largely working class country town where I live.

Bulldust. Please don't take me for a fool. My overall average journey might be 24 miles too but I also do much longer journeys. I drove to SW London a few days ago. The very place you'd expect to see loads of EVs. After all it's a moneyed area so EVs are affordable and with the Mad Mullah as Mayor and his ever expanding ULEZ, you'd think EVs would be everywhere. Trouble is, not only are public charging points in very short supply (i.e virtually non existent), but a high proportion of the houses don't have off road parking, so consequently the only option is a fat cable draped across the pavement. Not exactly wheelchair, toddler or frail old person friendly, so it remains to be seen how long before the injury compensation claims start rolling in. EVs are in every way the wrong solution.

Electric cars are the perfect example of climate change over exaggeration and misinformation morphing into media frenzy that then drives government policy making. just as with the diesel fiasco of 2006-20011, the public is lulled into believing that electric vehicles are a Good Thing. If your driving pattern is lots of short runs and you have off road parking and your own charging port (well away from the house in case of a fire) then great, go for it. But if you have a normal driving pattern, then good luck finding one of the fast charging points that's actually working and available and be sure to allow plenty of extra time for the longer journeys as well of plenty of cash if you run out of charge and need a taxi. Or you could just buy a proper vehicle...

Couldn't agree more. 20 bores have their place - if you can afford the shells - but at 15 most kids want a grown up gun!

Colron do 00000 (5 zeros) grade ultrafine steel wool. I got mine in Homebase.

I don't see what it has to do with the tories. Illegal immigration and fake asylum seekers have been a problem for over 30 years. T. Blair sending Mandelsson off to India and Pakistan actively promoting migration to the UK (cos of course they'll vote Labour) started an unstoppable tidal wave of humanity. Just from Pakistan alone the figure is still about 250,000 per year! At least they're mostly here legally, but having 40,000 plus illegals arriving on our beaches and harbours every year and probably double that number who don't get counted, just makes things almost impossible for the occasional genuine asylum seeker. It shouldn't be up to us to check the veracity of asylum claims, like everything else in life, it should be up the claimants to demonstrate a valid claim. If they can't oblige it should be Sayonara Folks, you're on a plane home

My 1968 Lotus Cortina SE. Today's value somewhere north of 50K... 🤔

Just watched it. Gripping stuff and not for the squeamish but shows the personal side of war very convincingly.

There will always be Luddites who think personal information floating around an office on bits of paper is more secure than protected electronic storage. I've had on line banking for years and I think it's great. I can pay plumbers or builders etc by electronic transfer and I use my phone for contactless payments, which is way safer than using a card, and because of that there's no £200 limit.

I've been using PayPal since about 2005, and I'm certain it's safer and more secure than entering card details online to some firm selling roofing felt or cheap jeans. Many proper retailers, both here and abroad, accept PayPal, and the threat of reporting a certain dodgy German car parts seller to Paypal rapidly got their attention and got me what I'd ordered.

It's almost certainly against regs to run an oven from a 13A socket, whether fused or not. If it caused a fire, your insurance company would probably be reluctant to pay out on a claim.

Label remover liquid from you local stationery supplier or online. Useful stuff to have around...